Engine oil testing????

[Mahana79]

i do UOA's on all 3 of my vehicles. i consider myself an average rural american. for me they have proved useful in one instance. On my 02 Jetta at an oil change around 92,000 My UOA came back with some really high numbers. the folks at blackstone reccomended inspection of the top end because of what metals they had found. i pulled the valve cover and after some research and consulting on tdiclub i fould the culprit to be a bad cam that was pitting out on the lobes. I replaced the cam and lifters tot he tune of about $280. ran a quick oil change basically to break in the new cam and lifters and took some more samples each time. everything cleared up and now with 147,xxx on the odo everything is fine. a rebuilt 1.9 TDI runs about $8k depending. UOA's have helped me catch problems that i would have never seem without. to me they are worth the $18-$25 just for that extra bit of information that they provide. the icing on the cake is that they have allowed me to extend my oil change intervals. Do I really need to know how much iron, copper, tin, etc. is in my oil?? No probably not. does it hurt me to know?? No not really. Will it help prevent an engine problem?? It just might but you will never know if you dont do it. i know it did prevent a major problem with my Jetta because i was doing them. knowdlege is power and without it you dont know what your missing.

 

[kenmac]

i do UOA's on all 3 of my vehicles. i consider myself an average rural american. for me they have proved useful in one instance. On my 02 Jetta at an oil change around 92,000 My UOA came back with some really high numbers. the folks at blackstone reccomended inspection of the top end because of what metals they had found. i pulled the valve cover and after some research and consulting on tdiclub i fould the culprit to be a bad cam that was pitting out on the lobes. I replaced the cam and lifters tot he tune of about $280. ran a quick oil change basically to break in the new cam and lifters and took some more samples each time. everything cleared up and now with 147,xxx on the odo everything is fine. a rebuilt 1.9 TDI runs about $8k depending. UOA's have helped me catch problems that i would have never seem without. to me they are worth the $18-$25 just for that extra bit of information that they provide. the icing on the cake is that they have allowed me to extend my oil change intervals. Do I really need to know how much iron, copper, tin, etc. is in my oil?? No probably not. does it hurt me to know?? No not really. Will it help prevent an engine problem?? It just might but you will never know if you dont do it. i know it did prevent a major problem with my Jetta because i was doing them. knowdlege is power and without it you dont know what your missing.

Around here if you do uao's ( if you listen to some) you aren't average. Once again the proof's in the puddin. uao's work. I do uao's because I keep my stuff till it won't run anymore( for the most part) I'm not in debt at this time & don't intend go in debt anytime soon when I can pervent it by doing uao's

 

[anthonyk]

Holy guacamole!

Now I'm sorry I even posted this))

Hey guys, the nice thing about life is that we don't have to all agree, all the time.
For me, I'm glad it's worked out. It's saved me time and money on oil, that's for sure. As for the engine, I promise, I'll keep you posted.

Have a great new year,

Anthony

 

[MikePA]

Now I'm sorry I even posted this))

Don't be sorry. This thread is pretty much par for the course in this forum and it generally starts with someone who thinks people are throwing their money away with syn oil and/or oil tests. I've also seen syn oil proponents do similar things, but that has not happened for a while (someone who always did this was banned). We mods let it go on for a while for no other reason than to let the newbies see for themselves who people are. It's also why the general advice is to do a Search. No new information has been shared for years and the old timers know what the outcome will be of threads like this.

Hey guys, the nice thing about life is that we don't have to all agree, all the time.

While we do not have to agree, that's not a reason to be disagreeable. Why people feel so strong about oil is beyond me. If people want to test oil, good for them. If they don't, good for them, too. If they like dino or don't, who cares. This forum is for people to share their experiences and let others learn from it. The problem arises when people start denigrating others for their choices.

Thread closed.